Fast 50 & emerging 8.

Utah's economy is arguably the strongest and fastest in the nation. The Beehive State is adding jobs at twice the national rate and, in terms of population, is growing faster than any other state. So in this, the fastest- growing state, the Fast 50 companies are the fastest of them all. Take a look at the list of the companies that have blown past the competition and are accelerating into the future.

ZURIXX, LLC

After five years of explosive growth, Zurixx is ready for more. "We are right at that launching stage and it feels like a new company," says James Carlson, CEO of Zurixx.

The company was only founded five years ago, in 2012, and has achieved 5,626 percent growth over the past three years, says Carlson, reaching over $130 million in revenue last year. But that growth was not unexpected. Carlson says growth has progressed "almost as planned" since the company formulated its business plan in 2012.

Carlson credits the company's success to fearlessness when it comes to trying new things, patience and persistence. He also acknowledges the contributions of Zurixx's employees.

"Our employees are what make Zurixx great," he says. "Watching employees come out of their shell, exceed goals and do great things is a huge success for me and my partners. We put a huge emphasis on the growth of our people internally and want everyone that comes through Zurixx to gain skills and experiences that benefit their careers. Seeing this happen is such an accomplishment."

Carlson says Zurixx strives to create a corporate culture where employees can have fun, learn, feel respected and give the opportunity to achieve. In addition, he says the firm is committed to giving back to the community.

"We are so proud to have been able to give back over $1.6 million to organizations that do great things for people in need in our community," he says. "We work with Huntsman Cancer Institute, Susan G. Komen, Courage Reins, The Road Home and so many more. We also put an emphasis on employees taking work time to volunteer. We want our people to give back and we support those efforts wholeheartedly."

PLEASE DESCRIBE YOUR COMPANY'S GROWTH IN RECENT YEARS.

"In the summer 2015, Blue Raven Solar was a sales rocket ship. Our sales were nearly doubling every month, and with so much growth we could not keep up! Peterson Partners agreed to invest in us in 2015, and we have continued to ascend with their help. In less than two years, Blue Raven Solar became the No. 11 solar company in the nation by installed volume based on Greentech Media's U.S PV Leaderboard. For context, the 10 solar companies with more installed volume than Blue Raven Solar have been in business for an average of 15+ years."--Ryan Lee, CEO, Blue Raven Solar

"We had a strong growth spurt before the Great Recession. We hunkered down during the tough times during the recession, and we had to right-size slightly, but we made the strategic decision to hang on to our people. Long-term means a lot to us at Layton. It's paid off because we have deployed our resources--our people--post recession, and have more than doubled the size of our business financially and have quadrupled the company's size geographically."--David S. Layton, President/CEO, Layton Construction Company, LLC

WHAT WAS THE TURNING POINT OR CATALYST FOR YOUR GROWTH?

"We really started to scale extremely fast when we pivoted as a company and acquired four new brands and developed four new divisions within the business. Today we have five brands we are developing in nine states across America, with additional acquisitions on the table for approval. Once we had the right team, experience and process in place--we have grown exponentially." --Andrew K. Smith, CEO Four Foods Group

"Partnering with banks on our equipment financing is paramount to our success and we were in big trouble when they went completely stagnant in 2008. We were forced to pivot to non-institutional finance sources to have any chance at funding deals. We are happy that the banks have recovered and we currently finance over 50 percent of our business with banks. [However] we still finance over 40 percent of our annual fundings with non-bank sources. This has truly become one of our benchmark competitive advantages that we offer to the market."--Justin Nielsen, CEO, Onset Financial, Inc.

"In 2009 we believed it was a great time to buy multifamily real estate. We identified the market opportunity two to three years before many of our competitors.

Our market timing was excellent and has contributed to our growth."--Jeff Danley, Managing Partner, Peak Capital Partners

IS THERE ANYTHING INNOVATIVE OR UNIQUE THAT YOU'VE DONE TO MAINTAIN YOUR RAPID GROWTH?

"Historically, we have only had the tools to sell based on relationships or price. Neither of which is sticky enough to survive if a customer experiences an operational pain. We've dedicated the last couple years developing a platform to intuitively solve our customer's most pressing challenges and for the first time will empower our salesforce with a bona fide competitive advantage." --Dave Decker, CEO, Complete Merchant Solutions

"[We made a decision] early on to structure our company bonus plan in a way that all team members are held to the same standards, including salespeople. We have not commissioned salespeople at Health Catalyst. It also means that all bonuses are paid against the same criteria. This has created a deep mentality of shared accountability across our entire organization, which has shown positive results countless times over."--Jeff Selander, Chief People Officer, Health Catalyst

"We've continued to invest in emerging technologies, such as adopting bitcoin for payments. This includes the formation of our blockchain technology accelerator, Medici Ventures. We've also maintained profitability throughout the majority of our growth, which is so unusual for a pure-play e-commerce retailer that you can list on one hand the companies over $1 billion that can claim that feat."--Meghan Tuohig, Vice President, Overstock.com

WHAT EXCITES YOU THE MOST ABOUT YOUR COMPANY'S POTENTIAL?

"We remain focused on new product development, as well as near-term opportunities presented by the fulfillment industry, which is a...